Concerning information on Mai 3 Jakfruit

JoeP450September 9, 2011

Hello Jakfruit experts,

I was just down in Boynton Beach today and decided to pop into Excalibur and see what's up. Ended up buying an 8.5lb Mai-3 jakfruit. I really enjoyed the taste/texture of this cultivar and am excited that the 12 seeds I found inside have already started germinating. ( I was originally supposed to meet up with bsbullie on the seeds, but due to conflicting schedules we never did.)

Anyways, I have searched all over for information on this cultivar and all I seem to find is info on the Mai-1 and Mai-2 cultivars. How do the different Mai's differ from each other, where did the Mai-3 originate, what is the Mai-3's growth habit? If anyone could help me with these questions I would appreciate it. Here are some pics of the Mai-3.

My understanding is that Richard Wilson, owner of Excalibur, obtained the original plant material (I think it was seeds and not a graft or other vegetative reproduction) from a Vietnamese man whom I have never heard identified. Richard called this Mia 1 but pronounces it as if it is spelled Mai 1. I have always assumed that Mai 1 is more likely to be the correct transliteration from the Vietnamese. Anyway, back in the day, Wilson was selling many seedling trees under their original clonal names. Seeds from the Mai 1 produced the Mai 2 and Mai 3 is what I have been told. Wilson proudly exclaimed with his Mai 1 jak that it was so low in latex that you could clean an entire Mai 1 with ungloved hands and then shake someone's hand and they wouldn't know you had just cleaned a jakfruit. Well, I have to say, having cleaned a Mai 1 or two in my day, that this statement by Wilson is a bit of an exaggeration. Mai 1 does have limited latex but the shaking your hand business overstates that characteristic ever so slightly. Mai 1 is more yellow in color than what you have pictured as Mai 3. I am growing Mai 1 and I also have a Mai 2 that is grafted. It is small and hasn't borne fruit yet. I was given what was supposedly a Mai 3 by Noel Ramos. He obtained the tree from someone at Excalibur. Turns out that my purported Mai 3 is a seedling of Mai 3, or something else. It has borne fruit but they do not look anything like what you have posted. In fact, the fruits on my tree never size up and are totally malformed. So, I have never eated Mai 2 or 3. I am also growing a seedling of Mai 1 but it has never borne fruit as of yet. It is large enough to bear now, but ran into some early problems when it was newly planted out when I accidentally sprayed a portion of it with Round Up. I am hoping to get fruit on it next year as it bloomed with its male flowers this year. In any case, the Mai 1 is a very nice crisp flavored Jakfruit. I am anxious to try the other Mai jaks.

That is funny you bring up the latex issue, because I definitely noticed that the fruit had a SIGNIFICANTLY low amount of latex when cleaning it. I didn't have to oil up anything and not even clean the knife afterward. I was at was fathers house and he didn't have any oil and I was like I'm eating this fruit regardless, luckily it didn't turn out in a big sticky mess. Sometimes I get the "cocky" vibe from Richard and he can sometimes really talk up whatever he's trying to sell you, but in all honesty this fruit had less latex in it. Richard told me once that he and his associates have done the "most for jakfruit than anyone else in north america."

I was on top-tropicals site last night and see they have two zima pink plants in stock, I really like the thought of reddish-pink flesh. Still on the fence about buying one.

The Mai 1, 2 and 3 were named by Richard. As the story goes, a Vietnamese man, who was a veteran of the Vietnamese military, who brought a bunch of jackfruit seeds to America and planted them out. Richard supposedly picked the best three fruit, all for their different characteristic, and named them after the man, in no special order, as number 1, 2 and 3 (the man's name was Mai). They all have very little to no latex. The Mai 3 I recently cleaned had none withing the flesh and rag, I only got literally one quarter size spot from the inner core. I did not need to oil anything or wear gloves and my hands and surface washed clean as a whistle with soap and water.

I have not tasted the 1 or 2 but from what I was told, all three are crunchy and sweet to extremely sweet, as far as jackfruit goes. The fruit of the 3 is the smallest, weight-wise, of the three. The fruit Mai 1 and 2 are purported to get on the medium to large size weight-wise. If/when I taste 1 and 2 I will provide updates...

As far as buying anything from TT, I would be very leery. I would suggest taking a trip to their "nursery" or as they call it the "mail order processing center" to see for yourself. Would it really make any send to have a Garden Center to feasibly/realistically near their "nursery"...